Hello Darkness My Old Friend
Friday November 28, 2025
Summers in Toronto are short - too short - and that all too familiar feeling of dread starts to set in as the leaves begin to change their hues from green to gold and red. Summer this year was very hot and dry, which meant that forest fire smoke was not great. Despite this, I still did my best to get out and see the city, whether it was for the multitude of cultural festivals, a trip to the Islands, blueberry picking at Wilmot Orchards, the free night at the AGO, or taking pictures of the many, many street cats that I’ve named after desserts. There’s Flan, a shy brown and white cat with a “haaa” kind of meow. His brother, Choco, a void with grey streaks, who tends to be a bit spicy. Oreo, a very rotund black and white cat that loves to flop on the floor and expose his belly. Smores, an aloof white and brown cat that always glares at me. Tangerine, a ginger who always has a place to go to. Sesame, a very talkative black and white cat who also has a tag saying “please do not feed”. Recently I also named Crème, a white and grey patched cat, and her brother, Brûlée, a friendly void, as well as Hazelnut, their brother, who’s a bit more shy.
We went to Point Pelee over Labour Day in the hopes we’d catch the monarch butterfly migration, but because of the hot weather, they hadn’t started their trip yet. Nevertheless, we visited the southernmost point of Canada, both on the island, as well as the bit on the mainland. We went canoeing around the marshes of Point Pelee Provincial Park, and got to meet some tiny baby turtles being released into the water.
Work was busy. We’d been leading up to our release on Nintendo Switch in September, and I had spearheaded the major feature, Buddy Up!, with GameShare. Because it was such a new technology, Unreal hadn’t fully supported it in the way we needed it to work, but after some help from the Nintendo forums, and some good old fashioned debugging (and some wild “I don’t know what I’m doing!” hacks), we managed to get something pretty damn solid, and I’m proud of what we shipped. Unfortunately, we didn’t do as well as we had hoped, and due to some other factors relating to the industry as a whole, the majority of the team was let go. I continued working until the start of October to finish the final QoL patch for Lynked, but it was a sad ending to a company and project I had poured so much into despite my short time there. We can all agree that the worst part of this is having to spend winter in Toronto.
The news broke the day before my parents were due to arrive in Toronto, which meant that after I finished up, I’d have plenty of time to take them around. We rejigged a few things and made some bookings, and soon I had a full ten day trip planned with them, from Algonquin to Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal.
We covered so much in the month that they were here. For starters, I took them to Graffiti Alley, Chinatown and Kensington Market. That weekend, we went to Port Hope to see the salmon run, which was incredibly exciting for them. We had lobster mountain at Fishman’s afterwards, which was phenomenal. I also took them to Antler to try a bison steak and Tinuno for Filipino kamayan. The following weekend, we went for a maple farm tour on the way to Niagara Falls, where we got to try freshly made maple taffy. We saw the beautiful light show and fireworks over the falls at night, and in the day, the full splendour of the falls up close, with the boat ride right up to the Horseshoe Falls. We had a quick walk around the floral gardens and ended the day with a wine tasting for my parents, and an Italian meal in Niagara on the Lake before driving back to Toronto.
It was their anniversary on the Tuesday following our Niagara trip. We had dinner at New Orleans, a Cajun restaurant near Scarlett and Eglinton. Dad has always been a fan of Karen Carpenter, and being able to try the foods she sang about in her song On the Bayou was a real treat. The night had more to offer though - I’d been receiving aurora alerts and the readings online were all looking promising, so we went home, changed into warmer clothes, and drove out to Vaughan. Though the initial colours were faint, we were treated to a beautiful display of greens and reds at 11.30pm. Even without the cameras to show the colours, the lights were so bright on the horizon. An incredible spectacle for my parents, and such a memorable anniversary for them.
We covered St Lawrence Market and the waterfront that weekend. Saturday night was Nuit Blanche, and though there weren’t any standout art pieces, the vibe was great and a good showcase of the atmosphere in Toronto during these summer events. We had another lobster dinner at Yumi in Richmond Hill with the badminton crew, and then we were off to Algonquin the next day. We hit it at just the perfect time. I’ve never seen Huntsville so peaceful and quiet - I’ve only ever been there during public holiday weekends like Thanksgiving. The colours were stunning from Dorset Tower, and even though it was overcast the next day while we walked around the provincial park, we still got some beautiful pictures of the magnificent red maples on Highway 60, as well as a fox sighting!
We made our way over to Ottawa on Wednesday, where we did an immersive 3D experience of the Peace Tower, currently closed due to renovations. It was pleasant to be walking around Parliament Hill even though it was a bit chilly. For dinner, we found this incredible Burmese place near Chinatown that was super interesting and tasty. We had tried to go kayaking at Dow Lake, but they had closed for the day so we went the next morning, and dad throughly enjoyed being out on the water. We began the long drive to Quebec City, hitting some Thanksgiving traffic as we passed through Montreal.
I’ve only been to Quebec City once before this. It was fine, I guess? My parents loved it though. It’s got that French vibe and aesthetic, especially with the cobblestone paths in the old town, and the pots of flowers on the balconies. We had been super lucky with the weather so far and our lucky streak continued in Quebec. On our way to Montreal, we visited Chaudiere Falls Park, which I had missed my first time, and it was a short, peaceful walk (and free!) to see a beautiful waterfall.
I think my issue with Quebec is that I never know whether to fully lean into trying to speak French, or if I should just immediately admit defeat and go with English. I can’t really converse in French but I know enough to order off a menu and ask for basics, but it requires so much effort and my French is really bad, so I’d much rather just talk in English, especially if the other party knows how to speak English too.
We spent a few more days in Montreal. Originally we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to fill the time but everything worked out perfectly. Upon arrival, we went to St Joseph’s Oratory to catch the sunset. The next day, I took them up Mont Royal and then to the Botanic Gardens where we spent three hours walking around in the afternoon. At night, we caught the garden’s light show, Jardins de Lumiere, which we found to be well worth it. The Chinese lanterns that we had seen during the day had now been lit up at night, producing some incredible reflections in the lake where they were placed.
For our last full day, I took them around the old town and port area, and we finished the day at a French restaurant recommended by a friend, Leméac. What a meal - and what an incredibly massive dessert as well. The next day, we went to Schwartz right at opening for dad to try some authentic poutine, and then we did a Thousand Islands cruise before reaching Toronto late at night.
It was genuinely nice to have my parents around, especially because of the layoffs. The last time it happened, they basically just fed me all the delicious foods while we were in Malaysia. Being a tour guide gave me a sense of purpose and something to do. Following their departure, I bought myself a Nintendo Switch 2 and I’ve been playing Pokémon Legends ZA ever since.
There was the excitement of Halloween and a brief explosion of baseball frenzy as the Toronto Blue Jays made the finals (with a heartbreaking loss to the LA Dodgers), but it was only three weeks after my parents left that we got our first snowfall of the season. It was a significant dumping, with the snow lasting all throughout the weekend. It was an interesting sight to see the red and yellow leaves with a heavy dusting of white snow, which made for some beautiful pictures, but it was horribly cold and a sobering reminder that I’d be spending winter in Toronto, my first in four years.
In a last ditch effort to absorb some sun before the darkness of December and January, I’m off to Cancun - my first time in Mexico - where the forecast is 28 degrees. It’s begun to snow again in Toronto as we’re waiting to board the plane, and I’m looking forward to a weekend of warmth.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:43am on Friday November 28, 2025 :: 0 comments :: 
Easter in Atlanta
Tuesday April 23, 2019
The weather has finally been warming up. I can leave my heavy winter jackets at home and walk out with a hoodie - today I even wore shorts. The grass is regaining its full green hue and the trees are beginning to grow their leaves back, and in a few weeks time, we'll start getting some cherry blossoms in High Park.
I spent Easter in Atlanta for a friend's wedding. When they first sent the invitation out, it said "Athens" and I thought to myself what an awesome holiday it would be to go to Greece, especially since I missed that part of Europe in 2017. But no, it was actually Athens, Georgia, which is about an hour and a half outside of Atlanta. The more I researched the sights and sounds (and food) of Atlanta, the more excited I got about going. I booked accommodation, I sorted out a rental car to drive to Athens, and I planned a basic itinerary.
I remember the plane coming into Atlanta. Everything was so green. The trees looked so lush and vibrant, and outside of the city centre it looked like a forest. I found it really pretty. After checking into my AirBnB, I walked around downtown; it was sunny and 25C. Centennial Park was unfortunately closed because of a 4/20 Festival, but there were plenty of other things to see. I had dinner at Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint, where the food was kinda average, but the entertainment was fantastic.
Overnight, a massive thunderstorm hit the city, waking up me and shaking the house. I got an amazing slow-mo capture of one lightning strike over downtown. Another hit so close to my AirBnB that it sounded like an explosion. All this brought heavy rain on Friday morning, so I ended up taking a Lyft to the World of Coca Cola instead of walking there. It was interesting to see all the old Coca Cola memorabilia and advertising from so long ago, as well as learn about how it started and how far they've come. I got to try lots of different drinks from around the world, and I spotted an L&P bottle among the collection of global products, but I was a little bit over the propaganda. As I left, the rain had cleared, so I had lunch at the nearby Waffle House (at the suggestion of my American friends) and walked an hour to Piedmont Park. I walked around the greenery for a bit, catching the regional Pokemon Carnivine (I swear the whole trip wasn't just for Carnivine) but as it rolled around to 3pm, it started to rain again, so I sought shelter from underneath a bridge. When the rain stopped, I continued my explorations to the south, following the beltline trail to the Ponce City Market.
Ponce City Market is a massive food hall, with cuisines from India, South Africa, Japan and China, as well as local flavours. I had a honey and lavender gelato from Honeysuckle Gelato, then for some reason the police showed up and we were told to evacuate the building. It didn't last long though, so I was back inside trying to decide what to have for dinner. I settled on trying some catfish, with a Vietnamese inspired salad, that was really light and refreshing, and I finished it off with a key lime tart and a cashew fudge donut for breakfast on Saturday.
I was up early to get to the airport on Saturday so I could collect my rental car. I was pretty excited about this, it's been a while since I've driven and my first time driving alone on the right side of the road, but I was confident and had no problems. My first stop was to the northern parts of the city for lunch at this Malaysian restaurant that had piqued my interest. I ordered yong tao foo curry laksa, and it was, put simply, absolutely delicious. Afterwards, I drove to Stone Mountain, a massive...stone mountain... to the east of Atlanta, and hiked up for some fantastic views of the city. Just like I had seen on the way in, the whole area was covered in green trees of every shade. The clouds began to darken and the rain that had been far off had begun to creep closer, but thankfully it was only passing, and it wasn't too heavy. I made my way down the mountain and started the hour-long drive to Athens.
I arrived in good time, and after scrubbing up, I drove to the wedding venue. It was cold and a little bit rainy, and for some reason, it never occurred to me that it was going to be an outdoor wedding. I joked to the groom's brother that neither of them were good at choosing the weather for their weddings (his had torrential rain in Auckland). But despite the chilly wind, the rain held out mostly and my friends were married successfully. I didn't really know many people at the wedding, apart from the groom's family, but it was good to see the people I knew and catch up with them. The reception was really nice too, and I was quite impressed by the display of seven cakes at the end, each of them a particular aspect of their heritage, their place of belonging and their home. From Colombia, there was a tres leche (three milk) cake and a negra torta (wine-soaked cake with fruit and nut), from Malaysia there was a pandan cake, from the US there was a ridiculously sweet Georgian pecan pie and a New York cheesecake, and from New Zealand, there was a lamington cake and a pavlova.
It was relatively early to bed and early to rise the next morning as I had to drive back to Atlanta airport and catch my flight. For some reason, it had not crossed my mind that I needed to apply for a visa waiver to get back into Canada, especially since I had just renewed my passport, so there was mild panic as I hurriedly filled out an electronic application for it. Thankfully it was approved within minutes.
The coming few weeks will be busy as we finish everything for E3, and I'm desperate to get back to work to help the team out. I'm also looking forward to the Avengers: Endgame movie, and of course, summer!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:30am on Tuesday April 23, 2019 :: 0 comments ::
A New Year
Thursday January 3, 2019
Finally back in Canada after a glorious two week summery excursion in the homeland. It's wet here, in Vancouver, and I'm told it's been snowing in Toronto. Sigh.
The end of last year was busy. We had our final work karaoke on Friday night in Koreatown. It was so epic and full of laughter and good times; there was plenty of Disney, 80s power ballads and 90s cheesy pop, and we even sang Phantom of the Opera - with Emily hitting those amazing notes sung by Christine at the end of the song. So good.
I went to the light exhibition down by Ontario Place as well. It was pretty serene walking around the island, but the art installations were pretty colourful and interesting. It's cool that even in winter when the weather is so cold, there's still some kind of incentive to go outside and see what the city has to offer.
Pokemon Go's long-awaited PVP feature dropped this month, but as expected, it was nothing more than a mind-numbing tap fest with only slightly more strategy than a game of rock-paper-scissors. The rewards can be obtained regardless of winning or losing, the cost to make your Pokemon competitive is extremely high, and there's just no incentive to take that plunge.
The flight to Vancouver and then Auckland was not too bad. I played Smash Bros for most of the time, but then ran out of battery power on my Switch heading to Auckland. It was an overnight flight, so I managed to catch some shut eye, but I also watched Ant Man 2 and Incredibles 2. I arrived in Auckland very early on Thursday morning, and I babysat my nephew for the day.
I'd been starved of decent Malaysian food for so long that my first three meals in New Zealand were Malaysian - Kampung Cafe in Glen Eden, KK in Greenlane and Little Penang in Wellington. I basically took the airport bus from Wellington Airport into town, said hello to my excolleagues at PikPok, dumped my luggage at Mana's house and went straight to Little Penang on the Terrace. Auntie Tee and Uncle Keith even recognised me while I was standing in line, it was so nice to talk to them and tell them how much I missed their food. They even gave me a free teh tarik!
PikPok has changed a lot since I'd left. The company's grown by 40 people in two years, and the kitchen now fits more than two people. It was good to see everyone and see how they were, and catch up on news in my absence. We also went for karaoke!
My two weeks was spent basically absorbing as much Kiwiana as I could. Burgerfuel, L&P, Hells Pizza, mince pies, feijoas, the accent, the sun. I even played badminton! I visited tons of my favourite places in Wellington and Auckland, and I caught up with so many people: old workmates, church friends, family, school friends, University friends. It seemed like everyone had either gotten a mortgage, a dog or a kid in the time I'd been away. Though I may not have messaged many people over the past couple of years, it was easy to slide back into conversation as if nothing had happened, and for that I'm truly thankful. Everyone was keen to hear how my travels were, and about my life and job in Toronto.
The weather was awesome. Even if it was raining in entire time, I would have still had a good time not freezing my face off. Most days it was cloudy, but the sun came through quite often, in that familiar ozone-less burny sensation. I got some great pictures of Wellington's waterfront and Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, and sent them back to some jealous Canadians.
But of course, all good things must come to an end. The flight from Vancouver to Auckland was another night flight, and I slept so much that I almost ran out of time to watch Crazy Rich Asians. I'm not looking forward to the cold months ahead, but I am looking forward to seeing all my Toronto friends again, and telling them about my adventures and how great New Zealand is.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:33pm on Thursday January 3, 2019 :: 0 comments ::
Canadaversary
Tuesday July 31, 2018
Tomorrow marks one year since I landed in Canada to start a new life. It's gone by pretty quickly, but I'm still thoroughly enjoying my job and the city - and especially now that it's summer, it's incredibly exciting to experience all the events and sights that Toronto has to offer. Each weekend has been filled with something to do, something to eat, something to see. I shared 100 oysters for $100 with three others, had All You Can Eat Peking Duck, tried Xinjiang and Teochew cuisines; there was dim sum, office breakfasts, birthday dinners and barbeques in the park. There was karaoke, a hike around the Niagara Falls Whirlpools, Canada Day fireworks by the beach and a road trip to the Blue Mountains, where I drove on the right side of the road for the first time. I caught up with Dionte and we walked around Graffiti Alley. The company had its General Assembly last Friday, where we partied until midnight.
Last weekend I was in Chicago catching up with Loic, Dana and Marc. I went to a baseball game, which went exactly how I thought it would, in true American fashion: the hand on the heart thing for the national anthem, the sloppy greasy food and cheap beer, the whole atmosphere of Wrigley Stadium was just like I had seen on TV or in the movies. It did rain a bit though, and it would persist throughout the time I was in Chicago. We also explored Wicker Park, the area around our AirBnB, and I even snuck in some time to do a few Zapdos raids in Millennium Park. The four of us did a escape room, then watched the fireworks off Navy Pier. Of course, I had the famous deep dish pizza from Pizzeria Uno too - I wouldn't have left the city without it!
My weekends are so packed that the weekdays need to be quiet so I can relax and chill out. But I love it. I need to maximise my time before winter comes.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:26am on Tuesday July 31, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
Montreal and Ottawa
Saturday May 26, 2018
Last weekend was Victoria Day Weekend, which is approximately equivalent to Queen's Birthday in New Zealand. I went roadtripping with my badminton crew to Montreal for one night, and Ottawa for the second night!
I was a bit surprised when I found out the trip to Montreal would take 6 hours. It's around 540km away, which means it's only 100km less than the Auckland - Wellington distance. It was cloudy and a bit wet in some places, but we made it there around 5pm, having stopping at various service centres along the way. I was also missing Community Day for Pokemon Go, which featured Charmander, but thankfully Brian was willing to play my account for me. We had dinner at an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant, then wandered around the old part of Montreal for a while. The last time I was there was in February 2017, and it was bloody cold, so it was nice to walk around without my face hurting.
In the morning, we walked around Parc des Rapides, named after the rapids of the St Lawrence River passing by. The park is a bird sanctuary, and we managed to spot a few of the great blue herons nesting on some logs in the calmer part of the water. After another all-you-can-eat buffet, we went to Ottawa for the tulip festival. By that time, the sun was out in full glory. We parked over by Dows Lake, and I opted to kayak around the lake with Rohit, while the others shared a canoe. After being on the water, we walked around the tulip gardens until dusk, and settled in for dinner by the lakeside. After it got dark, we enjoyed a pretty sweet fireworks display over the water!
On Monday, we had our third all-you-can-eat meal before exploring the Parliament buildings and then crossing the river to Gatineau, where we did a two hour hike in Gatineau Park. Despite the dozens of flies and bugs swarming our heads, we made it out without any bear sightings and started our drive back to Toronto, finally arriving close to 11pm. What a weekend!
With spring in full force, my social calendar has been filling up. I visited High Park for the white cherry blossoms, and Trinity Bellwoods for the pink cherry blossoms. I watched Eurovision at Pauper's Pub with Marc. I shared 50lbs of lobster with my workmates (it was so good). Things are definitely becoming more exciting as we head into summer!
Posted by Jeremy at 4:09am on Saturday May 26, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
True Spring
Tuesday April 24, 2018
As we near the end of April, the temperatures have finally hit double digits - consistently. This weekend past marks the first day I have not had to wear my heavy winter jacket to go outside. In fact, it was so pleasant over the weekend that I walked to the Asian supermarket at the Stockyards - about 30 minutes away from my place - and treated myself with a tub of coconut taro ice cream, and pandan ice cream. At badminton yesterday, I was at Trinity Bellwoods Park just after 1pm, and with plenty of time to kill, I watched the dogs frolic in the park and eventually dozed off in the sun. Definitely a warm welcome from the frozen months of winter.
The Canadians tell me this is true spring, and what we experienced last month was False Spring 1 and Winter 2.
Last week was quite the adventure though. A massive ice storm hit the city, causing tree branches to fall on streets, widespread power outages and over 300 reported car accidents over the weekend. It somehow didn't stop me from going for a bloody Ex Raid, then to karaoke with my badminton crew, nor did it stop me from going to church and then to the shopping mall afterwards for Pokemon Go's community day. I also treated myself to my favourite mango and key lime cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, so it was a good weekend despite the snow, ice, slush and liquid water everywhere.
I went to Video Games Live as well, an orchestral concert dedicated to the legacy of video games from the past 35 years. Headed by Tommy Tallarico, we heard songs from Castlevania, Metroid, Mega Man, Uncharted, Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Mario, Okami, Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. We had a guest conductor, Russell Brower, who was the music composer for Blizzard Entertainment, and he led the orchestra as they played music from Overwatch and World of Warcraft: Mists of Panderia. My heart lept for joy when music from Phoenix Wright was played, and I could not help but point my finger triumphantly in homage to my favourite virtual lawyer. The climax of the concert was of course the Pokemon segment, where the orchestra played themes from Pokemon Red and Blue, as well as the Team Rocket theme from the anime. But the final song was by far the greatest moment of the entire night, as Jason Paige, the original singer of the Pokemon Theme song, came onstage and performed it, with the backing of Tommy and the orchestra, and the thousands of fans singing along - I wanna be the very best!
Today, some madman was trying to commit suicide by cop by Yonge and Finch. I was at work while the incident happened, some 15km away, but I do visit that area often if I'm heading to Markham or Richmond Hill with friends. News reports say ten people have been killed, which is super grim. It's an odd sensation seeing familiar landmarks and roads on videos like that.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:19am on Tuesday April 24, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
London: The Countdown
Friday July 28, 2017
I arrived back in London on Monday and took the train from Stansted Airport to Liverpool Station. I did something I hadn't done in a while - I went out and played Pokemon Go. Legendary raids have been released, meaning Lugia and Articuno can be found in boss raids in gyms all around the city. There was one near Liverpool Station, so I wandered down to see if anyone would show up. Sure enough, even though it was Monday, a small group had gathered to fight the Articuno, but I was unsuccessful in catching it. There were a couple close by, so I followed them around, dragging my luggage with me like an idiot, but neither raid was successful. The District line was in chaos due to maintenance and closures leftover from the weekend, but I managed to make it home for a haircut and quick shower before heading back out to Chelsea, where I met Alice for an incredible dining experience at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Full writeup in my food blog!
I was more prepared on Tuesday. I joined the PoGo London Discord chat and met with some fellow players near Notting Hill. I followed them around for a good 6 hours during the day, going from the west of Hyde Park and finishing near Marylebone Station. Of the ten or so raids we did, I managed to catch one Articuno and one Lugia exactly, so it was at least a fruitful day. I decided to call it a day and met Theo for dinner at Victoria Station. Afterwards, we saw Wicked the musical at the Apollo Theatre. I really enjoyed it! It was a slow start but quickly got better; Defying Gravity sent chills down my spine. The actors were all incredibly talented - magnificent voices - and the costumes and set design was equally as amazing. I'm so glad I got to see a West End show before I left London.
I met Mash for lunch out in Aldgate East, and then tried to find a quiet place so I could do some work on my laptop. I wandered over to the Barbican Centre in the hopes I could find a spot to sit down, but it turns out Kings College London were having their graduation celebrations there. I snuck in to the basement and swiped a glass of juice and some canapés before leaving. It was getting late, so I took the gross unairconditioned Central line over to Queensway and got some delicious char siu and roast duck rice from Four Seasons.
I met with Daniela and Sean for dinner at Putney Bridge yesterday and Jono for lunch at Strutton Ground Market; the rest of the week will just be catching up with people. It's all happened so fast, but I will be leaving London to work in Toronto, Canada with the team at Ubisoft Toronto. My work permit was approved last Friday and my flights were booked today, so it's all official now.
It's strange how curve balls can completely derail your plans; last year I had applied to a dozen or so companies all around the UK and Canada in the hopes someone would employ me and sponsor a visa for me. Both Ubisoft Toronto and Montreal were interested in me, but had a recruitment freeze on, so couldn't complete the hire. That was when I decided I would try for the UK youth migrant visa, but that meant I needed to get to the UK before I turned 31. Thus, I booked all my flights, sorted my life out and secured my visa for departure in January, when literally a week before I left, Ubisoft Toronto called me up to say they wanted to hire me.
Of course, I took the job. It meant that I'd have to wait 6 months for the work permit to be approved by the Canadian government, but it meant that I was free to travel around Europe while waiting. It's been an incredible time, and I couldn't have asked for a better situation. I've seen so much of Europe, but there is still so much more. I've met cool people and caught up with long lost friends as well. It will be hard to go back to working after such a long time, but I'm honestly so thankful that the job materialised when it did; it means that I don't have to sort out a bank account and social security number for the UK, I don't have to find a flat or contend with the ludicrous bureaucracy here. Ubisoft's relocation team have really taken care of me, and it will make my move quite smooth.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:56pm on Friday July 28, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Brighton
Thursday April 27, 2017
I spent the weekend in Brighton, catching up with Dale and Becca. It reminded me of Wellington to some extent, it's a small, cozy town with a great cafe culture and a good vibe. There's lots of little art murals everywhere, and I can imagine the beach getting super busy during summer when it's warm and sunny.
We walked down the waterfront on Saturday after having brunch. Dale and Becca are also big Pokemon Go players, so there was plenty to discuss and share and gripe; unfortunately they're on a different team to me, so we couldn't go on gym runs. We ended up at Brighton Pier, where we went on some of the rollercoasters there - not too shabby! We went biking in the afternoon past the white cliffs when suddenly we got an alert for an Ampharos that had spawned about 13 minutes bike ride away. We had 15 minutes to get there.
There began an awful uphill bike ride for 13 minutes. It has been a long time since I have ridden a bike, and even then, I've never used a bike with gears before, nor have I ridden on the road, so all of that was new to me. It wasn't easy but we made it, the last stretch I ended up getting off the bike and pushing it up the hill because I was so sick of pedalling. There marks the last Pokemon that I can catch for this region - my remaining two are Steelix and Scizor, which require an immense amount of luck to get their items to drop from a PokeStop.
We returned to the white cliffs for a few photos and then went home, via a Dragonite that was also slightly up the hill. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony with some other expats, enjoying cheese, tomatoes, crackers, cider and truffle oil, because we are grown adults and we are fancy. Dinner was at the pub nearby, and I ordered a massive platter of delicious things.
We went up to Devil's Dyke on Sunday. It's a valley carved out by an immense water flow into the chalk rocks during the Cretaceous period, and it's a short bus ride north of Brighton. Though it was a bit cold, the scenery from the cliffs was amazing, and we trekked down one side of the hill to the Shepherd and Dog for an awesome traditional Sunday roast lunch.
I left Brighton on Monday, stopping by Choccywoccydoodah, an eccentric chocolate shop with the most stunning displays of chocolate and cakes I've ever seen. I got a white hot chocolate from there, very reminiscent of the hot chocolate that Ned Flanders serves Bart Simpson in the Simpsons Movie.
I'm off on my next big adventure on Sunday. It's been horribly cold back in London, with rain, wind, hail and thunderstorms hitting yesterday. I barely left the warmth of my bed, venturing out only to get food. This trip will take almost 6 weeks, and I'll be covering France, Switzerland, Spain, Morocco and Portugal!
Posted by Jeremy at 7:15pm on Thursday April 27, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
London
Saturday March 18, 2017
I've been in London a week and have covered most of the major attractions. It's been overcast most of the time, and yesterday was super cold, but there were a couple of stunning days where it was definitely shorts weather and it truly felt like spring. The vibe here is way different to Oxford, there's definitely that big city feel. There's so much to see and do, and I love it. It is quite expensive though.
There's so many well-known landmarks that it's not worth listing out all the ones I've seen. Most days, I catch the tube into town and wander the streets. Soho is especially interesting at night, with all its alleyways filled with bars and eateries. I was out at Greenwich yesterday, visiting the Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian (which is not exactly at 0 longitude these days, but oh well.) The area by the Tower of London, St Katherine Docks, has tons of hip restaurants and cafes, and the area by the London Eye, Southbank, has some cool food markets and occasionally, free performances inside the Royal Festival Hall.
My wanderings for Pokemon have also taken me to pretty crazy places too. There was a Slugma nest at Stave Hill near Canada Water, a Cyndaquil nest at South Park near Parson's Green and at Golder's Green, and a Houndour nest at Whittlington Park near Archway. There was an Unown spawn in the middle of nowhere where I had to train for 30 minutes, bus for 10 minutes and run for 5 minutes to get there. After dinner last night, I got off the train going home to catch two different lines and run on a full stomach for 200 metres to catch a Hitmontop in Bayswater. There's no doubt I'm getting exercise, but many times I wonder if this game is worth so much of my time. Maybe I'll talk about this in another post.
Things haven't been all peachy though. On Thursday, I slammed my thumb in the stupid door and decided to cancel my day, but felt miserable for staying at home, so ended up heading out and doing a bit of shoe shopping because my hiking shoes are getting a bit worn. Yesterday, I was looking for food in Soho and had a bit of a sad eating by myself. Eating out to me is an inherently social activity, designed to be enjoyed with other people instead of alone. I really wanted to go to this Brazilian Churrascaria where they serve you unlimited meat, but it would have been so pitiful by myself. I'm usually okay being solitary when I'm travelling, but when I'm eating... I could use a bit of company.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:49am on Saturday March 18, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Oxford
Sunday February 26, 2017
I've finally made it to the United Kingdom, where I'm boarding temporarily in Oxford until I figure out what I want to do. It seems there is a high administrative overhead in opening a bank account, getting a tax number and finding a flat, and of course London is one of the most expensive cities in the world. The weather is exactly as I've expected it to be - cloudy and wet - but it is winter after all, and I expect it to warm up over the next couple of months.
It was a very early start in Reykjavik - 5am to be precise - to get to Keflavik Airport on Saturday, but the flight was short and I arrived in Gatwick just before noon with no problems at immigration. The bus to Oxford took two hours but at least it had free wifi. The first thing I noticed upon arriving is how gorgeous the buildings are; so full of character and rich with history. The food scene is apparently quite lacking here, but I'll be exploring the city tomorrow and will give you a proper opinion after I have experienced it myself.
I have at least managed to obtain a local SIM card for myself, and fortunately this deal allows me to roam around Europe with 12GB of data each month at no additional cost. Again, obtaining this was not a trivial exercise and reinforced the notion that bureaucracy is rife here. The app for managing my account and usage was only available in the UK App Store, so I had to create a new account in order to download it, and honestly I was rolling my eyes so hard at just how unnecessarily complicated things can be. Despite all this, it's all sorted now, and I've even managed to catch the fourth regional Pokemon, Mr Mime. That leaves Heracross (South America) and Corsola (equatorial countries), thanks to Generation II dropping a week ago.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:28pm on Sunday February 26, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Toronto to Niagara Falls
Sunday February 19, 2017
My time in Toronto has come to a close for now. It's been a very enjoyable five days here, and the weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny too. I covered a lot of the city by foot, seeing many sights and revelling in the food scene here. Toronto is the world's most multicultural city so my mission this week was to eat at a different country each meal.
After arriving at Union Station, I checked in to the accommodation - a small lodging house - and had a rest before heading out towards the main shopping district. I ended up walking through the university and gay village too before settling for some ramen (Japan).
The next day, I walked down to the waterfront, then over to the CN Tower and Ripley's Aquarium. I really needed to use the bathroom so I ended up paying for a ticket to the aquarium, which turned out to be quite interesting. From there, I went to Chinatown and Kensington Market where I got some bulgogi and squid for lunch (Korea), then continued north and east to Queen's Park, and all the way back to the accommodation on the east side of town. There was a Thai place I wanted to try for dinner, but it was closed, so I settled for a veal parmigiana and a very large tiramisu (Italy) from a nearby place instead.
On Thursday, I went to St Lawrence Market and was overwhelmed with all the amazing produce on display. Every type of meat and cut imaginable, all sorts of seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, shelves of cheeses, maple syrup, pastas, antipasto, charcuterie, breads and pastries. I was so happy walking around and admiring all the food. I ended up getting a grilled salmon sandwich (Canada) for lunch.
I took the subway over to High Park and spent a few hours walking around there. Though it was cold, it was very sunny and pleasant, and there were lots of people walking their dogs. I was on the subway again to Ubisoft Toronto, where I got a sweet tour of the offices and caught up with an ex colleague whom I hadn't seen since he left New Zealand. It was getting close to evening, so I settled into a cosy pub called The Caledonian for some haggis (Scotland).
The new set of Pokemon from the Johto region dropped in Pokemon Go, so I spent much of Friday wandering around the CBD to see what I could catch. It was another brilliantly sunny day, so I went up the CN Tower - what a spectacular view from the top. The lake was glistening in the sun, the city still had patches of ice and snow, but for a winter's day, this was most enjoyable. I continued west back to Kensington Market for some tacos and nachos (Mexico) before wandering back to the house for a rest. At night, I trekked back into town for mixed grill platter from Paramount (Lebanon).
Yesterday was more of the same, aimlessly wandering around town and visiting various PokéStops off the beaten track. I really wanted dumplings (China) for lunch, so I went to Chinatown and got my fix there, and I wanted to end my time here with something a little fancy, so I found this French restaurant nearby and ordered their pâté, confit duck casserole and creme brûlée (France). Fantastic! What a great meal to remember Toronto by. I will definitely have to come back and explore all the options I have available.
Just as I got home for the night, a lady right outside the gate cornered me and gave me some bullshit excuse of being hungry and pregnant, asking for any spare change. I offered to buy her food instead but she didn't want any - she tried to get me to pay $60 for subway tokens but I ended up paying $15 to get her to shut up and go away. Not the nicest way to end my time here but I won't let this faze me. I've had a most enjoyable time here and I look forward to coming back when it is slightly warmer!
Posted by Jeremy at 1:35pm on Sunday February 19, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Sayonara
Wednesday February 8, 2017
As I make my way to Narita Airport, I'm well and truly satisfied with my time here in Tokyo. I've had such a good time despite not knowing the local language, and I will definitely be returning some day to explore the rest of this beautiful country.
I covered a lot of things in my time here. On Sunday I was ahead of schedule so I decided to check out Tokyo Tower and Tsukiji Fish Market. My feet were still tired from all the walking so it was good to take it easy. At night, I remembered that I needed to book tickets for the Square Enix Cafe, so I enlisted Amy's help to navigate the website. It took a while and a bit of back and forth, but I ended up having to go to a Lawsons store to print out and pay for my ticket. What a hassle this turned into - there were no English instructions, I didn't know which numbers to put where, and I ended up having to ask the store clerk for help. He asked me to write my name down so that he could translate it to enter into the machine and FINALLY I got my ticket.
Amy had also given me a recommendation from a food blog for this place in Shibuya, but there when I arrived, the alley was dark and deserted, and there was no signage. I thought to myself this will be an adventure in itself, so I went in and enjoyed a very good and satisfying meal.
On Monday, I covered Akihabara, Ueno, Senso-ji and Tokyo Sky Tree, getting myself a Senor Don Gato plushie from a claw machine in Akihabara and a Pikachu in Mega Gardevoir hoodie from the Pokemon Center. I think this would have been my favourite day, just because of all the excitement of the arcades and the Pokemon Center. There were so many soft toys and figurines around, some massive models of Solgaleo and Lunala, the Sun and Moon mascots, as well as the three starters, Rowlett, Litten and Popplio. A special limited time Pikachu with Alolan Vulpix hoodie and Pikachu with Regular Vulpix hoodie were also available, but sadly I didn't have enough luggage space to buy everything I wanted.
I spent the late afternoon and early evening at the Tokyo Skytree, watching the sun set over Mt Fuji in the west. The expanse of buildings is phenomenal and watching the city lights slowly flicker on as night fell was magical. I had a tempura dinner back at Akihabara and then it was home for the night.
Yesterday I spent at Tokyo Disney Sea. Though the sun was out, it was rather blustery, making the day quite cold indeed. It meant that queuing outside for various attractions very unpleasant and it also meant that the final show, Fantasmic, had to be cancelled midway through. I did manage to go on Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, Raging Spirits and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with my only regret being the Raging Spirits rollercoaster. All in all, it wasn't too bad, just a bit sad that the day had to end with that cancellation.
This morning I was up bright and early to check out of the hotel and make my way back to Akihabara to go to the Square Enix Cafe right in the middle of Tokyo rush hour. After all the hassle of getting that ticket, I was determined to enjoy my time there and treated myself to a Moscow Mule cocktail and some snacks upon arriving. It was okay I guess, the food was nice and the merchandise was cool, but mostly focused around Final Fantasy XV.
Final thoughts: it would have been nice to know some basic Japanese or at least travel with someone who does. I managed to survive fine but probably missed a few things, especially food. The Japanese are very polite and orderly, and they are very advanced in some things, but other things, like e-commerce, are still lacking. There are vending machines everywhere but no rubbish bins. They really like queuing here. I need to come back with someone so I can go to karaoke.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:34am on Wednesday February 8, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Japan
Saturday February 4, 2017
Japan is amazing. It's everything I imagined it to be and more. Everything is so cute! Everything is so orderly! Everything is delicious! The weather has been good so far, sunny and pleasant to walk around in, but a little chilly at night time. It's certainly not shorts weather but it's better than some of the "summer days" that New Zealand got last month.
My Air Asia flight to Haneda was uneventful, but I did win the airplane lottery again and got the whole row to myself. The food was pretty good too! We landed earlier than expected and I made it through customs pretty quickly. I had planned to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel but decided to take the train since it was still operating. I ended up lugging all 30kgs of my life about 15 minutes, but the weather was mild and I got some good exercise. I was dripping with sweat by the time I got to the hotel though.
On Friday, I wandered aimlessly around Shibuya, visiting various shopping malls and enjoying the sights and sounds of the area, when I happened to spot the region exclusive Pokemon, Farfetch'd, on my nearby list. A bit of scurrying around and it appeared right outside the Shibuya Tokyo Rei hotel - and caught!
I was so lost in time that I didn't get to have lunch. I hurried off to the Ghibli Museum out near Kichijoji and was greeted by Totoro at the entrance. The guidelines say to wander freely with no set path, discover the many and beautiful things hidden inside. Truly the whimsy and wonder of the many worlds of Ghibli have been captured here. There is unfortunately no photography allowed inside so I must rely on my memory to revisit the many exhibits and displays of art all over the building. There's a showcasing of the "beginning of movement", and they're playing this beautiful piano piece from one of the films, and it's such an emotional song. I spent about an hour wandering around, and I'm getting hungry, so I set off to find this French patisserie place that Amy told me about in the opposite direction.
I arrive about 30 minutes later and I am not disappointed. It looks like Louis Sergeant with a few Michelin stars tacked on. I choose two desserts and I'm on my merry way back to the train station, but I spot a park in the sun on the way, so I sit down and devour the things I've bought - a giant hazelnut tower and a yuzu inspired cake.
I'm back at Shibuya at dusk, in time to witness the famous Shibuya crossing, where hundreds of people converge on a single intersection during green lights. I'm hungry still, and getting tired from walking around so much, so I find a ramen bar and play food roulette - I didn't know what to do with the vending machines so I just copied the dude in front of me and ordered what he got. It's delicious. The soup is full of flavour and the noodles are bouncy and soft. The lady next to me however has a massive bowl of pork and egg and I'm getting fomo, but what I have has satisfied me. I'm back at the hotel by 8pm and I pass out for a good 9 hours.
Today I met up with Tak who took me to a sushi train place for lunch. Holy moly. The sushi here is completely different to what you get in New Zealand. The freshness of the seafood is very noticeable, as is the quality of the vinegar in the rice. I'm almost moved to tears, everything is so delicious. The salmon especially is creamy and smooth, the unagi is sweet with a slightly crispiness from the blowtorch. I'm enjoying myself so much, this is a very memorable experience.
We take the train to Harajuku and wander around for a while, visiting the various shopping streets as well as Meiji Shrine and Togo Shrine. We stop by the Cookie Time store and under Raewyn's orders, I sing Let it Go from Disney's Frozen on the karaoke machine and receive a round of applause from the shop, as well as a jafa and hokey pokey cookie for my efforts.
I also visited the owl cafe around the corner. They're so damn fluffy and cute. For 1500 yen you can stay there a whole hour and you get a small drink too. Pretty worth it, in my opinion! As dusk fell, I went to a place called Red Rocks, another of Amy's recommendations, and got a massive stack of sliced beef with a raw egg cracked on top. Delicious again!
I made my way to Shinjuku and wandered the streets, looking at various arcades and bright lights adorning the streets. I bought some thermals from Uniqlo for super cheap as well. I saw the robot restaurant but it looked too busy so I gave it a pass. It was fun just enjoying the busyness of the area at that time, and the atmosphere and vibe.
A half hour later and I'm back at the hotel, nursing my sore feet. What an amazing two days!!
Posted by Jeremy at 1:54pm on Saturday February 4, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Chaos
Monday November 14, 2016
It's been a strange week.
Last Wednesday, we watched the US elect Donald Trump into presidency, a move that stunned the whole office - the whole nation - into disbelief and horror. I'm not one to spout my opinions on politics on my blog, but I will say that I hope the minorities and vulnerable people he has consistently attacked throughout his campaign will find peace among such a tumultuous time, especially with reports of Trump supporters actively harassing such people.
On Thursday, things were much better for me as I jetsetted to Sydney for a holiday, that just happened to include capturing the Australian regional Pokemon, Kangaskhan. After landing on Thursday afternoon, I walked from my hotel in Hyde Park to Chinatown and Darling Harbour to grab a feed, and it was barely 200m down Liverpool Road that Kangaskhan appeared - and caught successfully! Over the course of the four days I was in Australia, I captured another eleven more, so I can trade them off when that feature is ever introduced.
On Friday, Mat and I covered all the major landmarks. We wandered through Hyde Park, past St Mary's Cathedral to the Royal Botanical Gardens and Mrs Macquarie's Chair, where there were some stunning views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We continued through the gardens to the Opera House, where we sat in the Pokemon Gym at Opera House for a good 10 minutes. Continuing down past the Rocks, we watched a traditional Aborigine dance being performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art for their 25th anniversary, then headed to the Bridge Climb office and decided $300 was way too much for what it was. We ended up walking the length of the bridge, stopping at one of the concrete pillars for some great views of the city. We had a quick look around Luna Park, then trained back to the CBD and did some shopping before going up the Sydney Tower. We ended the day at Criniti's at Darling Harbour, and rested at the hotel for a little bit before heading back to the Opera House, where they had lit up the sails with some beautiful red poppies in a light show, in commemoration of Armistice Day.
After some overnight rain and thunderstorms, the weather had cooled down quite dramatically. We visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship in the morning, and wandered through Paddy's Market and Chinatown. The clouds had disappeared bringing through some intense sunshine, to the tune of 30C, so we bundled some towels and headed out to Bondi Beach. It wasn't as packed as I thought it would be, but it was still incredibly busy. The water was amazingly refreshing and loads of fun with the waves breaking on the shore. We headed back to town and I met up with Joel, who took me for dinner at Mekong, then dessert at Koi, and drinks at the Palace Hotel.
Sunday was pretty relaxed, just finishing off our shopping at various spots around the city. I found a piano at the Queen Victoria Building near the Town Hall, and played Let It Go from Disney's Frozen, and the Pokemon theme song, both of which had drawn a sizeable crowd of passers-by to the piano area. Despite ruining the last note in Let It Go, I was pretty happy with how I played, and was beaming from ear to ear as I left, happy that I had at least brought a smile to some people that day. Unfortunately Mat never took a picture or video for me, so I have no proof. I went back to get a picture of the piano there, and someone was playing the most amazing classical tunes on there...but no one was applauding! Poor guy.
I met up with Chris and Sharon, and they took me for dinner at Ms G's in King's Cross, and a quick tipple at the Glenmore Hotel's rooftop bar before heading home. As I was settling down to bed for the night, Geonet started buzzing frantically, with a 7.5 earthquake hitting the South Island near Kaikoura. Facebook started filling up with worried posts from my Wellington friends, all exclaiming how intense the shaking was. Hundreds of aftershocks followed in varying magnitudes, dozens over 5 and 6. I'm lucky to have missed it - I would have been hysterical. There were tsunami warnings and damage to some of the buildings in CBD, but my friends seem to have escaped injury, and for that I'm thankful.
I arrived back in Wellington today, and was relieved to see my apartment had escaped damage too, save for a few bottles and trinkets that had fallen over. I'm still experiencing aftershocks and am unsure how the night will fare, especially as strong wind and rain buffets the city. Of course, the inclement weather has also meant we missed out on seeing the greatest supermoon in almost 70 odd years. Classic Wellington.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:18am on Monday November 14, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
Days Off
Monday September 26, 2016
Taking the two days off after daylight savings weekend (the weekend where you spring forward an hour) was a great idea. This morning, I got up, had breakfast, played some Final Fantasy Record Keeper, then fell asleep again until lunch time. So good. It hasn't been all relaxation though, the weeks of neglect from going out to hunt Pokemon have left my apartment in a little bit of disarray, so there was plenty of cleaning and vacuuming to do. I still want to hit the gym at some point today. I might have an early dinner and go late to avoid the regular Monday night rush.
The past week has been relatively quiet too. We released Shadow Wars, a puzzle/collection game, for both iOS and Android. I had a minor part in this one - the platform services integration - so I'm to blame if the cloud sync or your achievements goes wrong. It's been an interesting experience though, it has made me more aware of how terrible certain technologies are, especially how we have to work around Xcode to get our entitlements and provisioning profiles working. Because we're using Unity, it generates the Xcode project at build time, meaning we can't use Xcode's GUI to manage our provisioning or entitlements or capabilities. We end up having to script in our changes to enable iCloud, allow push notifications, add associated domains, etc. The whole process takes 20 minutes to test and debug as well. It was definitely one of the most frustrating things I've had to do, but we got there in the end. It's one of those things that you tend to do once and then forget about until the next project.
I still need to catch up on food blogging. Maybe that will be a tomorrow job. I'm not always one for completely vegetating throughout the whole day, but it's nice to not have a specific agenda and to just relax and take things at my own pace.
I should take more days off.
Edit: It started raining. I did not make it to the gym. I ended up making my own apple sauce though - it's so good!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:50am on Monday September 26, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
World Famous in New Zealand
Monday September 19, 2016
A lot of things have been happening in the last couple of months. It's been hectic, chaotic, exhilarating and draining all at once. I'm finally able to sit down and write in my blog because... well, I don't need to go out and catch Pokemon anymore - I've caught them all!
As a fan of the games, it's been interesting to see how Pokemon Go has represented the franchise, and especially its ubiquitous motto - Gotta Catch 'em All. Though the game lacks polish and usability in many places, what they have managed to do very well is - and excuse the pun - capture the core of the Pokemon games: collection. From a developer's perspective, it's been interesting looking at how particular features were implemented and how I could use that to my advantage - density and distribution, spawn points and timers, known locations and nests of particular Pokemon, and so on.
My last Pokemon was a Lapras, which I caught down by Oriental Parade at 7.59pm on Sunday 11 September 2016. It was pretty surreal, I was incredibly excited and sat in my car screaming for five minutes. The NZ Herald got wind of my story and published an article about my achievement, but incorrectly assumed that I was the first in the country to do so. Nevertheless, there were a few other media appearances - I was interviewed on Flava the radio station, and Jeremy Corbett briefly mentioned me during TV3's 7 Days show. It's been funny because I've never had this much attention in my life, and though I'm not a household name nor have I been stopped on the street, friends of friends have noticed my achievements and those friends have then told me about it, and that's awesome.
I think my friends would agree that it's no surprise that I would get this far. Pokemon has been a major part of my life, especially with the management of Psypoke, and it's no secret that all through high school, University and now at work, it's one of my favourite video game franchises. At the same time, I've still held my job, socialised with people, been to the gym (the actual lifting weights gym) and played badminton all in my regular routine, I've just squeezed a bit more Pokemon in every day so I can catch them all.
What now, then? There's four region exclusive Pokemon to catch - Kangaskhan in Australia, Farfetch'd in Asia, Mr. Mime in Europe and Tauros in North America. Generation two must surely be on the cards soon as well. I can prepare for that in advance by making sure the new evolutions are ready to go once the update drops. There's the buddy system too and I can continue levelling everything up. The opportunity to travel is exciting and a good excuse to get out of the country.
In other news, Wellington on a Plate was a blast, as usual. That will be a completely different write-up on my food blog - so much to talk about. On the whole, I thought the burgers last year were of a higher standard, but many this year were still very enjoyable. Mid-autumn festival was last Thursday and on Saturday I cooked a vegan dinner in celebration, and on Sunday I cooked a non-vegan dinner in celebration. Both turned out very well and people were well fed.
In short: there were a few very strong earthquakes centered east of New Zealand that were widely felt in Wellington on September 2; I went with Mana, Mike and Tim to Red Rocks to see the seals; I saw FFXV Kingsglaive and thought it was okay; work has been tough and I've had to put in a few more hours to get things done but the end is in sight.
We're only three months away from Christmas. The year has gone by so quickly >_<
Posted by Jeremy at 10:28am on Monday September 19, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
But I Just Want to Play Pokemon :(
Sunday December 7, 2014
My copy of Pokemon AlphaSapphire arrived on Friday, but unfortunately my weekend has been so stacked with events that I simply haven't had time to play it. On Saturday I had badminton in the morning, then I met Mana at LBQ to check out the food being served by Dai and Dal, the Laotian girl team from New Zealand's version of My Kitchen Rules. I stopped by the Southern Cross briefly to say hi to Sunni who was having her 30th Birthday, but my back started playing up so I needed to move... and ended up at Mana's for the Singstar Party. Paul texted mid-afternoon for a quick drink at the Sprig and Fern that night so I obliged too. I dragged Mana and Phil along and I met Paul's flatmate Alex there too. It was a pretty crazy Saturday and I was absolutely shattered by the time I got home.
Today has been pretty tiring too. I made it to church for the second Sunday of advent - peace - and I was out to Churton Park for the last family group gathering of the year. By the time I got home, it was 3pm and I passed out on my bed for a three hour nap. So good. I'll get a bit of chance to play Pokemon after I finish blogging...!
Last weekend was pretty crazy too. After badminton, I met Jimmy at the gym (because it was still Bring A Buddy For Free Month) for some more upper body workouts, but the highlight of Saturday was 8-player Smash Bros on the Nintendo Wii U. So awesome. I seemed to have some dominance with the Pink Powerpuff Duo, Kirby and Jigglypuff. The Wii U version feels great and looks gorgeous in 1080p. We had dinner at Little Penang and I hung out at Mana, Will and Phil's for a bit before heading home for the night since I had music at church the next day.
On Monday, I was at Campbell and Linda's for a very satisfying steamboat and Mana, Will and Phil's on Tuesday for the 80s Movie Night - this week's choice was Labyrinth. It feels like I've missed out on a lot of 80s movies, so this is a good opportunity to catch up on some of the films that have been so iconic of that era. The week before we watched Princess Bride - not particularly to Mana's liking but I appreciated the odd sense of humour which would have been far more appropriate for that time period than today.
We found out our Game Jam teams for this year and have started brainstorming ideas. GJ2014 will be in the last week of work, and will conclude what has been a pretty busy year for me at PikPok. Next year will be full of challenges too, and I'm looking forward to completing my first commercial Unity project.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:41am on Sunday December 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Oh Geez, It's October
Tuesday October 7, 2014
I can't believe it's already October.
I've been hard at work on the site, updating its interface and structure and essentially rewriting the code from scratch. The result is something that is finally mobile-friendly and something that doesn't look like it was written by a 21 year old in 2007. Bootstrap is pretty awesome and it has made designing the site easy. Thanks to Vincent for showing me the ropes and for inspiring me to make something more contemporary and classy! In addition to this, I also have my Food Blog, which is a formalisation of all the pictures and descriptions from my Facebook page.
Work has been busy. I've been working on upskilling in Unity by making a sweet version of Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad game, but themed with Pokemon - aka, my two most favourite game franchises in the world. Last week, I started pre-production on my new project, which should tide us over until the end of the year. I haven't actually started a project since Dash n Drop in 2012, so I'm looking forward to all the challenges that this will hold.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:36am on Tuesday October 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
The Best and Worst April Fools Joke Ever
Monday April 7, 2014
Last Tuesday on April 1st, Google pimped their Google Maps app for mobile with catchable Pokemon scattered throughout the world. I jumped on that bandwagon so fast and by the end of the day, I had successfully caught 150 of the Pokemon they'd put into this little April Fools joke. But I soon became aware of Mew's existence somewhere in the Amazon and it was another two days of searching and staring at Reddit before the elusive Number One Five One finally presented itself deep in the forests of South America.
Whee.
It's been a pretty busy weekend, starting off with a murder mystery at the Carter Observatory. Aboard the "International Space Station", we stumbled upon a grisly scene - the owner of the Solar Flare laboratory was found dead from strangulation and asphyxiation! It was a most enjoyable night, with canapes and fine wines to be had, and some interesting people to hang out with for a few hours.
Mat was down in Wellington too and we caught up with him at Ortega before going to Hashigozake for some drinks and Tiger for some karaoke. The night was still young and we ended up at Alice before finally heading home at 1am. Thanks to daylight savings though, I was able to make it to church on time, and caught up with Mat again for a gluttonous afternoon at La Bella Italia in Petone and Strawberry Fare soon after. I also met up with the Fine Dining Club at Charley Noble by the TSB Arena for a very fine dining experience indeed.
It was just a weekend of eating, basically.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:28am on Monday April 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
What a Weekend
Sunday March 2, 2014
The weekend started out with a few drinks and pizza at the Sprig and Fern, and some healthy discussion on mildly controversial and polarising religious opinions. Following that, we headed back to the Greenhouse for some delicious black forest cake to celebrate a non-descript March holiday which happened to coincide with World Civil Defense Day. I had my suspicions but I was still pleasantly surprised and a little embarrassed with the attention, but the night was thoroughly enjoyable.
On Saturday, we had the PikPok Family Day Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Bowls Club. Though the day was a bit windy, the sun was glorious and the atmosphere chilled and relaxed. Charlie had found out about the aforementioned non-descript March holiday and had brought in some candles to stick in the cupcakes, it was very sweet. Thanks to a sign she had written, people well-wished me as the day progressed, again very touched by the sentiments but a little embarrassed with the attention, teehee. It was awesome to spend the day with cool people doing cool things, just out in the sun chit-chatting and playing bowls.
We ended up at the Gryphon Theatre at 8pm to catch the final night of the Fringe at the Gryphon, with three improv shows: Brooks and Brown in Literally Anything, Sketchual Healing and Here's a Thing. Mind-blowingly funny, absolutely amazing performances by all involved and just damn entertaining, capping off what was a brilliant day.
I've been house-sitting at Charles's place too, with his two kittens Hugs and Kisses. Adorable but so mischievous! They like following me around the house and they're extremely playful. I left the pantry open and they snuck in to have a look around; they got stuck in one of the large drawers in the kitchen as well. They'd go into my room and I'd try to carry them out, but since there's two, I'd get rid of one only to have the other sneak in, and repeat. Still, heaps of fun to play with, and I think they liked the attention too.
I've also been following Twitch Plays Pokemon, a social experiment giving 60,000 people the chance to control a Gameboy Emulator playing Pokemon Red. After 16 days, they've finally beaten the Elite Four and Champion but spawned several memes and a joke religion - Lord Helix the Omastar, Bird Jesus the Pidgeot, Flareon the False Prophet, so on and so forth. Highlight of the Elite Four battles would be level 36 Venomoth (nickname ATV, or All Terrain Venomoth) versus Lance's level 62 Dragonite. Due to some questionable AI programming, Dragonite kept using Barrier and Agility as they were "Psychic" attacks super-effective against Venomoth, and Venomoth had managed to Disable Hyper Beam and Poisonpowder Dragonite. Totally epic, and absolutely fascinating to watch the whole game unfold at the hands of thousands of people like that. A new adventure begins in just over two hours - what could it be!?
Today I was at church for the final in the series of "Things I Wish Jesus Never Said", and then out to Lyall Bay for Ekim Burgers with Jimmy and Charlie. After a solid afternoon nap, I was at Laundry with Jono, Andrew and Wei for dinner, then Fidel's for dessert.
My weekend has been super busy but full of amazing friends and fun times. Thanks guys, you rock.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:45am on Sunday March 2, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
December
Monday December 9, 2013
Man... it's almost the end of the year. Things have been so busy in the last few months that I've once again neglected my blog. Why do I blog anyway? I guess it's a kind of historical document that I can look at in 50 years time when I have Alzheimer's and think of all the great memories I had at the time. Even looking back at how I write and what I blog about makes me cringe!
So since my last piece about flights to Malaysia, I've managed to secure tickets back home but unfortunately not for Christmas or Chinese New Year due to full flights during this peak season. I spent a lot of time negotiating with Malaysia Airlines, but to no avail. It's understandable though, just a bit disappointing. It would have been nice to go back for my cousin's wedding and see everyone again, but no matter, I'll still have a good time when I go back in Easter next year.
The game I've been working on has finally been released - it's Flick Kick Football Legends for both iOS and Android. We're looking at churning out a few more updates so stay tuned for extra content and more amazing user interfaces. It's been a tough project but the team have worked extremely hard on it and I think that we should be proud of what we've achieved and how polished the product is.
I've been deep in the Pokemon as well. Pokemon X has been a great game - I've clocked over 150 hours on it already. I've caught almost all the Pokemon available without the Pokemon Bank service to transfer Pokemon from previous versions. I'm thinking of moving onto Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies soon - looking forward to more [OBJECTIONS]!
In short... I've found a replacement flatmate, we had the work Christmas party, went out to Makara by myself to watch the sunset and the stars, saw the fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day, tried to bread Smudge, had the degustation at the Whitehouse on Oriental Parade and had an amazing meal at the new Little Penang, which has expanded to the place next door! We have affectionately called it "Medium Penang", and the food is still as delicious as it ever has been.
Life in the past two months has had its ups and downs. Sometimes I've felt lonely or frustrated about life - one time it was so bad, I was awake at 3am in the morning having an existential crisis. Other times I've felt a lot more anti-social than normal, or distant from my friends, like I need solitude to clear my head. In those times, I usually retreat to church to play piano, and I've found music to be so calming and therapeutic. It's probably just a phase though, so don't worry about me. People come and go; so do friendships. They say the only constants in life are taxes and change... and I should learn to be more adaptable and flexible in life instead of dwelling in the past all the time.
Dear future Jeremy. Count your blessings and be thankful for them. Cherish the friendships you have and be good to the people around you. Don't worry so much and don't let life get you down all the time. Never forget who you are and maintain a strong sense of integrity.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:16am on Monday December 9, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Monthly Check-In
Thursday July 26, 2012
I think it took me about a week in New Zealand to realise I wasn't on holiday anymore and to feel back in routine and get over the jetlag. Only a week :( But here I am, just over a month later and America seems like such a long time ago.
Things have been busy since I got back. There was the release of Black 2 and White 2 in Japan, as well as Pokemon Conquest in English. I've been busy hacking bits of information from the ROM with a friend of mine who is originally from Canada but is on a student exchange in Singapore. The developers have chosen to lay the information out in strange ways. Normally things are aligned to byte boundaries, but in Conquest, you often find clumps of data that span any number of bits between 3 and 10, making it difficult to discern data. Progress has been slow but the more we become used to this stupid system, the more patterns we find in the data. We had some great breakthroughs using Tinke's graphics utilities to batch export the Warrior and Pokemon Gallery images - exciting stuff!
Work at Sidhe has been pretty full on as well. Upon arriving back, I'd learned that I had been reassigned to another project starting immediately, and due out at the end of October. We are still in the prototype phase, and finding many challenges with the development and design. Stay tuned for exciting updates! We'll be on both iOS and Android.
I was in Taupo at the start of the month for Richard and Tanya's wedding. The weather was brilliantly sunny, despite dropping to -1C overnight. The lake and snow-capped mountains in the distance make the area so scenic. The church ceremony was okay, the highlight being the newlyweds walking out to the tune of the Star Wars theme. The reception though was great - fresh oysters galore! It was great catching up with school friends that I hadn't seen in a while, even if some of them still owe me money for accommodation. It was a great weekend away from Wellington, and to cap it all off, I coincidentally bumped into my youth group friends from Auckland in Turangi's Burger King. Small country >_>
I caught up with one of my old flatmates who had moved to the UK four years and is back in New Zealand for a month or so. It was a socially draining but very enjoyable weekend. Also got to play a bit of 7 Wonders too! Good times.
I still haven't sorted out my photos from America. There's over 2500 of them (and not all of food) but hopefully when the dust from Conquest settles, I'll have some time to go through all of them and process them.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:54am on Thursday July 26, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
The Big Apple
Friday June 1, 2012
The subway system in New York is rather confusing. Each line has many trains running on them. A train may or may not stop at every subway station on the line. So it ended up taking us two hours to get to the hotel from JKF airport. Sigh.
But we made it and that's the important thing. We explored the Rockefeller Center today and saw the fantastic daytime views of the city from the top. We also visited the Lego store, Nintendo World, M&Ms World, Toys R Us and Macy's. All these places are massive and multistoried, full of merchandise and bargains and amazing things. I purchased a Mew plushie from Nintendo World, as a shout out to my favourite Pokemon website, Psypoke, since Mew is one of our official mascots. I spent quite a bit of time there playing a Kirby game on one of the several Wiis there too - so cute!
We also caught the amazing nighttime views of the city from the Empire State Building. Totally breathtaking, being able to see the entire city from where we were, and on such a clear day as well!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:59am on Friday June 1, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
The Latest Games Are Out!!!!
Thursday March 31, 2011
Posted by Jeremy at 6:41pm on Thursday March 31, 2011 :: 0 comments ::
Pokemon Black and White
Sunday September 19, 2010
The ROM of the Japanese versions of Pokemon Black and White finally leaked on Saturday morning - I was anticipating it leaking on Thursday but it appears that /vp/ had failed me.
So with that, I have been busy hacking away, trying to understand the various structures and data in the game. With Stephen managing the Psydex code and database side of things, and Mike trawling other sites for much needed contextual information, and of course the miscellaneous help from #psypoke, we've been able to get a lot of information up on the site in the past two days (of course, not everything has gone as smoothly as it should have, but oh well). Kudos to all who have helped!
Last Monday, I suddenly had the urge to eat moon cake, so I looked into various Asian supermarkets to see what was on offer. We happened to do a flat shop at Pak'n'Save Kilbirnie that night, so I checked out the Asian place next door. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the lotus paste with egg, but I decided that I would try a different kind of moon cake - one I had never tried before.
Pandan moon cake! So goooood. I love moon cake.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:16am on Sunday September 19, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
This Week's Releases
Sunday March 14, 2010
Firstly, the fabled remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver are out in the US today with the Australian and New Zealand release 10 days later. Of course this means it's busy time for me and
Shatter, Sidhe's revolutionary brick-breaking game, is out on Steam, with my name making a brief cameo under the Special Thanks to the original Shatter team. Go and get it!
And finally, on Thursday, the long awaited Rugby League 3 is out for the Nintendo Wii. Featuring slick menus, awesome player and team customisation, and of course some classic rugby league action using the totally unembarassing Wii Remote controls, why WOULDN'T you want this game? (sorry Americans, this game is not for you)
Posted by Jeremy at 9:00am on Sunday March 14, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Halloween
Sunday November 1, 2009
iPhone development has been going well. We just finished another game under the PikPok brand, so expect to see it in the online store sometime. You'll hear it from me as well :3
I acquired a new ornament for my desk.
Spent Friday night playing Hearts and 500 with three others from work. Way better than going out and drinking >_> Nevertheless, the drinking continued with my workmates the following night at a Halloween party. I went as a white guy dressed as an Asian guy. I know, it was an ingenious costume. There was a Bloctopus (from Shatter), lots of devils, a Zorro, a Rambo, a Nacho Libre, a Cowboy, some Vampires and lots of other weird and pretty hard-out costumes. Oh well. Maybe next year.
I also had dinner at the new flat (name pending) by the Botanical Gardens where Matt, Jono, John and Mel are going to stay. It's a nice place, but looks a bit dark because of its position. I look forward to spending lots of time drinking and being merry there.
Yum char today with Laura and Peter. Good to catch up with them, but it felt the quality of the food had declined a bit. We got to see Peter's new place, and then it was quickly home for an afternoon nap. Awesome.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:42am on Sunday November 1, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
October
Monday October 5, 2009
It's finally October and the year has gone by so quickly. Winter is technically over, but today's blustery conditions tells me otherwise (Thanks Wellington). Even typing this now, I can hear the wind howling outside, bringing a chilly southerly to sweep the streets of the city.
Anyway, Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 has supposedly been sent out the door, which means we're just sitting tight and waiting for feedback. We're still playtesting this - it's really good and I like the story mode, but it's easily clockable in a few hours. The theme music is cool though! Rugby League 3 on the other hand is still there, just waiting for publisher dramas to resolve. Meanwhile, most of the programmers have been pulled onto research and development projects.
On the Pokemon front, HGSS was released a few weeks ago and I've been busy hacking away. Apart from the standard Pokemon stats, attack information, level-up attacks, breeding moves, trainer information, etc, I've also managed to learn from Eevee at veekun how to parse sprite data, which is something completely new for me, and provided a good challenge over the weekend. There's still things I don't know but I'm learning!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:45am on Monday October 5, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
Quiet
Thursday September 10, 2009
So yeah it's been pretty quiet at work, with us just waiting on issues from the publisher to be resolved. I haven't been doing many things, just fixing French translation bugs as they come through, random asset drops, whatever. So finally today, I got told I'd be moving to a new project! Finally, something to do.
Last Saturday there was a rave party at Matt, Pete and Owen's. With lasers and glowsticks. And there was a smoke machine too, but unfortunately that was not working. Party was good until about 11.30pm when it got a bit awkward, but I had music practice the next morning so I didn't stay too long after that.
Raymond and Nancy are down for a visit, so I'm meeting them for lunch tomorrow with Peter and Laura. Maybe we can organise Strawberry Fare as well! Yay!! I'll be home alone this weekend so it'll be a good time to cook some good food. Today, I made tom yum with loads of prawns and mussels!
And finally, the other big news is that Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver are out this weekend, but I'm lurking at /v/ to see if there are ROM leaks. For research. Really.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:22am on Thursday September 10, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
I'm Not Dead Yet
Wednesday March 25, 2009
I've been incredibly busy with lots and lots of things.
Firstly, my Pokemon website Psypoke got a huge overhaul with a completely new template and a new backend that hopefully futureproofs the site for Generation 5, if that exists. The Great Refactor was an idea I had in November that actually carried through, so the code is nice and tidy, and the template has been sitting there for six years or so, so it was nice to have a fresh new look for Pokemon Platinum's release.
Secondly, I've been doing a bit of overtime at work - two weeks ago, I did four days of overtime with both good and bad meals to compensate. Microwaved food is seriously disgusting. The meal I had was named "Delicious Chicken Breast" and it should have been called "It's A Trap". There's been a huge amount of indecisiveness over the way that the menus and the UI are designed, and the UI coders suffer as a result. We're getting so much work piled on us, we'll be doing three days of overtime next week and three more the week after.
Thirdly, last weekend, I went with some friends to the 'Naki where we stayed at someone's grandparents place, only to get up at 7am the next day and scale the steep heights of Mt Taranaki. And omg, it was one hell of a climb. I was so incredibly unfit, I was struggling each step of the way. What made it really bad was a section of the mountain was just scree (loose rocks) so you'd take a step and slide down. I kept complaining about negative progress and whatnot, but four and a half hours later I was standing on top of the mountain, over 2.5km above sea level. The view was shrouded by clouds but in the gaps there was the splendour of the New Zealand landscape, seeing as far east as Central Plateau itself. My annual exercise for the year can now be checked off and I can mark this as an achievement to be proud of.
We had some spare money in our flat account, so we hit the town and went to a classy restaurant on Cuba St called the Matterhorn, where I had an awesome steak and shared some Bordeaux wine with my flatmates. Steak is my hero, it makes me calm.
A few weeks ago, we also had the annual Newtown Fair, where I bought some delicious ginger fudge, that I still haven't touched because I feel bad for eating so much bad food :(
And finally, I am officially a New Zealand citizen. Take that Winston Peters!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:14am on Wednesday March 25, 2009 :: 1 comment ::
January Adventures
Wednesday January 21, 2009
I recently got Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Kirby Super Star Ultra on my DS; and with the ever-addictive nature of Picross, it means more DS and less blogging. Anyway, here goes.
There's been a few events happening in Wellington. You will have heard in the news of the Gaza protests happening in Civic Square. I was passing by and heard the chants (they're quite catchy, I must say). One was "Israel, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!". And this happened for at least two days, we could hear it quite well from our office.
We also had a dinner voucher to the Red Tomato in Kelburn, which had featured on that restaurant revamp show on TV. Yeah, the pizza wasn't too bad, my only complaint was that the Mexican was smothered in coriander, which didn't really suit the overall taste at all. Coriander is a garnish and it shouldn't be the dominant taste on pizza.
We hung out on Oriental Bay one evening, having fish and chips on the beach. It was a really calm day; two of the group even went for a swim in the water. By 8.30pm, the water was warmer than the air, so it must've been incredibly difficult to come out.
Last weekend, it was Wellington Anniversary = Long Weekend, so we planned a trip to scale the heights of Mt Taranaki, somewhat reminiscent of the good ol' 4th Form Camp, when we hiked up Mt Ruapehu. Unfortunately, the weather did not permit, so we decided to make our way to Cape Palliser, the southernmost point on the North Island. Not only was it gloriously sunny, the wind was fantastic and hiliariously fun. We climbed 250 steps to the lighthouse and enjoyed the full blast of the winds on the cape. Three of the group even went swimming in the frigid waters, and we shared a picnic lunch on the rocks by the sea. Cape Palliser is also known for the seal colony, and you can check out the gallery for pictures.
This weekend, it's Parachute 09 up in Mystery Creek, and also Chinese New Year on Monday. It's going to be awesome.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:12am on Wednesday January 21, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
Graffiti Trends
Friday October 10, 2008
I was walking home from work today when I came upon this construction site. A concrete wall was half demolished, and some people had graffitied on it.
I find this amusing.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:26am on Friday October 10, 2008 :: 5 comments ::
Websites
Saturday September 13, 2008
It's been a very busy week in terms of the two websites which I am responsible for.
Firstly, the Ignite Youths website was released to public eyes at the beginning of the week - a result of some awesome collaboration between myself and Reuben.
Secondly, Pokemon Platinum was leaked three days early, much to my surprise, so I moved into emergency mode and started hacking for information as soon as I could. That involved ringing the flat during work hours and getting Andrew to email me some of my programs. .
In any case, Psypoke's got some great information for the time we've spent on it. I've been browsing some other websites and they're very far ahead in the game, but I know WPM from PokeBeach spent 28 hours continuously playing the game. I wouldn't be surprised if SPP had some slave doing the same for him.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:56pm on Saturday September 13, 2008 :: 2 comments ::
Slack
Thursday May 29, 2008
Yeah I suppose I've been a bit slack when it comes to blogging. I spent the past week working on the most awesome Pokemon Snap section on the INTERNETS!!! EXCLUSIVE TO PSYPOKE!!!!!!!
Anyway, the whole flat went to watch Indiana Jones last Saturday. It was very action-packed, by the post-movie analysis proved there was very little plot, bits of cheese, and many holes and inconsistencies. But as I said, the whole point of the movie is to be so enthralling that you forget about all these things, and it did, so it was okay in that respect. I wouldn't pay to see it again though.
On Sunday, we went to Karori Baptist for a visit. The service was...um...different, and very friendly. Too friendly. Jono and I were glad to escape. We met with Andrew, John and Bjorn at this cafe in Kelburn, where we waited over an hour for some epic delicious food. Of course I took pictures - check the gallery.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:54am on Thursday May 29, 2008 :: 0 comments ::
Post Christmas Activities
Thursday December 27, 2007
The period between Christmas and New Years always seems so blah. It's like something's meant to be happening, but nothing does. \(_o)/
Anyway, we had an awesome feed on Christmas day. We had cheese platters (with some pickled onions, yum!), chicken nibbles, roast pork, glazed ham, potato salad, hot salad, green salad...and then for dessert we had these custard things in pastry cup...things. That were really really nice, so it's all good. And we also had a 5-layer rainbow jelly that took 5 days to make.
Since Christmas, I've been trying to get my sleeping habits back to normal after waking up at 4am to go to the airport. I think I'm back on track... kinda. Oh, and Sam arrived safely, so that's good too. \o/
I've been playing a lot of DS. Namely Pokemon...I've been breeding Larvitar and I finally got a good one . Anyway, that's half of my team, I need to get an Abra, Machop and Staryu now. Sigh. I wish the game makers would stop being so freaking stupid over IV Breeding and just make it some kind of max(father, mother, random) function. I also played Mario Kart DS over Wifi with PT, and that was lame, because he got a Blue Shell at the last course and pipped me to win the race. But all in all, we tied because I won the first two and he won the last two, so I'm not too fussed, and I fail at MKDS anyway so it doesn't bother me.
Lastly, I have also been hacking Pokemon ROMs. Yes h4xx0r lolz. I've been looking at the trainers' Pokemon. So far I've figured out level, dex number, item held and moveset. There's another number that I'm not too sure about...Weng Hao hypothesised it to be some kind of AI difficulty, and it makes sense, but I don't know of any way to test it.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:34am on Thursday December 27, 2007 :: 1 comment ::